Poems by Lidija Dimkovska

 
Историја
 
Мртви луѓе во живи години,
живи луѓе во мртви години.
 
Мртви народи во живи децении,
живи народи во мртви децении.
 
Мртви човештва во живи векови,
живи човештва во мртви векови.
 
Секое време има непожелни истории,
секоја историја – непожелни времиња.
 
Помеѓу содржината, резимето и клучните зборови,
историјата е реферат за животот и смртта.
 
По конференцијата уредно ќе го објават во зборник
што никој никогаш нема да го прочита. 


History
 
Dead people in living years,
living people in dead years.
 
Dead peoples in living decades,
living peoples in dead decades.
 
Dead humanities in living centuries,
living humanities in dead centuries.
 
Each time has unwanted histories,
each history unwanted times.
 
With its content, summary and key words,
history is a paper on life and death.
 
After the conference it will be duly published in the proceedings,
which no one will ever read.
 


Плус-минус
 
Порано мртвите
можев да ги избројам на прсти,
сега се недоброј.
 
Порано живите
можев да ги бројам пред спиење,
сега ги повторувам.
 
Помислам ли
дека некој може да умре,
веднаш сум подобра со него.
 
Колку било лесно
да се биде добар
со потенцијално мртви луѓе!
 
Но штом се одложи
умирањето,
се одложува и живеењето.
 
А тогаш
телото го губи времето,
душата го придобива.
 
Телото го напушта просторот,
душата го населува,
духот го расселува. 
 
Меѓу живите и мртвите
разликата е плус-минус
некој степен во температурата:
 
едните се оладени,
другите се изгорени,
а сите (н)и живи (н)и мртви. 
 

​
Plus-minus
 
Once I could count the dead
on the fingers of one hand,
now they are too many to count.
 
Once I could count the living
to make me fall asleep,
now I repeat the few names over and over again.
 
If the thought crosses my mind
that a person might die,
I’m immediately nicer to them.
 
Amazing how easy it is
to be nice
to potentially dead people!
 
But as soon as dying
is postponed,              
living gets postponed as well.
 
And then
the body loses time,
the soul gets it.
 
The body leaves the space,
the soul inhabits it,
the spirit displaces it.
 
Between the dead and the living
the difference is a plus-minus,
a degree or two in temperature:
 
the former have gotten colder,
the latter have gotten burnt,
and all of them (n)either alive (n)or dead.

 
Translated from the Macedonian by Ljubica Arsovska and Patricia Marsh 

Lidija Dimkovska was born in 1971 in Skopje, Macedonia. She is a poet, novelist, essayist, and translator. Since 2001 she has been living in Ljubljana, Slovenia. She has participated at numerous international literary festivals and was a writer-in-residence in Iowa, Berlin, Graz, Split, Vienna, Salzburg, Tirana, Okinawa, and London. She was a member of the international jury for Herbert Award in Poland, a member of the jury for Petru Krdu Award in Serbia and the president of the jury for the Vilenica international literary award in Slovenia.
Her EUPL winning novel A Spare Life was firstly published in Macedonian in 2012, and so far has five editions in Macedonian. It received also the Writers Association of Macedonia Award for best prose of 2013 and was long listed for the Best Translated Book Award in the USA. A screenplay based on the novel is available, too.

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